- Canadian technology wizards adapt APC software so that Inuit can publish online

Canadian technology wizards adapt APC software so that Inuit can publish online

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By Web Networks

TORONTO, CANADA, 01 November 2004

New solution puts APC member in Toronto at the forefront of implementing languages on the Web.

Users can now surf the Web in Inuktitut on any computer, without extra software or special settings. “Because the syllabics issue is handled by our Web server,” says Oliver Zielke of Web Networks, “the user’s fonts and browser settings don’t matter.” Site maintenance, he says, is a snap. Webmasters can write in Inuktitut within the customized interface, push a button, and it’s done.

Web Networks of Toronto worked with Piruvik Centre of Iqualuit to develop Attavik.net, an application suite that makes it easy to manage documents, directories, calendars, registrations, and online payment in the Inuit language.

“The Government of Nunavut is committed," says Eva Aariak, Languages Commissioner of Nunavut, "to making Inuktitut its working language. This type of development puts that goal within reach."

"In the big picture," says Chuck Gilhuly, executive director the Nunavut Municipal Training Organization, "maintaining the viability of a language is a matter of making things functional in the language. If we had to become Web site programmers and write in code, we would have never achieved the functionality that we have, or else we would have gone broke trying to do it."

The technology behind Attavik.net can be used to serve Web sites in other syllabic languages, such as Cree, Oji-cree, Naskapi, and Korean.

Web Networks, which developed the server-side tools, is a leader in knowledge management tools for membership-base organizations. Its clients include Greenpeace, Amnesty International, the Ontario Nurses Assocation and the Canadian Labour Congress.